Tens of Thousands of Incarcerated Individuals Have Utilized JPay’s Lantern Program to Earn Close to 33,000 College Credits
MIAMI — Thousands of incarcerated Americans are back in the classroom this fall thanks to JPay’s Lantern, a first-of-its-kind initiative that enables mass education of incarcerated individuals through the use of tablets. Partnering with universities such as Ashland University, incarcerated individuals use their JPay tablets to study, do their coursework, take tests and sync the devices to the kiosks to submit their deliverables for grading. Students can also engage with Ashland professors through a messaging tool. Lantern is free for incarcerated students, and many enroll through the Pell ESI, a federal initiative that provides incarcerated Americans with the financial aid they need to complete degree programs.
With new students enrolling in the fall semester, JPay has released updated statistics:
- Almost 80,000 incarcerated individuals have enrolled in courses via Lantern since the program’s inception across multiple Department of Corrections; and,
- Over 33,000 college credits have been earned by students since 2016.
“We are extremely proud of our role in providing incarcerated communities with the benefits associated with an education,” said Robert Pickens, Chief Executive Officer and President of Securus Technologies. “It’s encouraging to know that thousands of individuals have been given a second chance to transform their lives for the better through education and technology, something we are providing on a mass scale.”
This first-of-its-kind program offers students high-quality educational services in-line with those found by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to reduce the likelihood that an incarcerated individual will commit another crime post-release. A 2014 DOJ study found that incarcerated individuals who participate in such programs are 43 percent less likely to return to prison within three years of their release than their peers who did not participate in such programs.
“Reducing recidivism is a critical challenge affecting the entire country, and, as educators, we understand that giving incarcerated individuals access to higher education is a pivotal tool that will help them be successful after their release,” said Todd Marshall, Ph.D., Associate Provost at University. “That is why we are so proud to partner with JPay in this important endeavor, and the results speak for themselves.”
About JPay
JPay, a Securus Technologies Company, designs, builds and deploys its technology to prisons and jails across the country, establishing correspondence to help educate and rehabilitate offenders. Serving more than 1.9 million offenders and parolees in 35 states, JPay makes the corrections process more convenient for offenders and their loved ones, while modernizing processes and increasing intelligence capabilities for corrections facilities. Products include money transfer services, tablets, email and video communications, education, games, music and more.
About Securus Technologies
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and serving more than 3,450 public safety, law enforcement and corrections agencies and over 1,200,000 inmates across North America, Securus Technologies is committed to serve and connect by providing emergency response, incident management, public information, investigation, biometric analysis, communication, information management, inmate self-service, and monitoring products and services in order to make our world a safer place to live. Securus Technologies focuses on connecting what matters®. To learn more about our full suite of civil and criminal justice technology solutions, please visit securustechnologies.com.